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gent and songwriter Albert Peterson finds himself in trouble when hip-thrusting rock and roll superstar Conrad Birdie is drafted into the Army. Albert's secretary and sweetheart, Rose "Rosie" Alvarez, comes up with a last-ditch publicity stunt to have Conrad Birdie record and perform a song before he is sent overseas. She makes Albert promise to give up the music business and to start teaching English at schools ("An English Teacher"). They plan to have Birdie sing Albert's new song "One Last Kiss" and give one lucky girl from his fan club a real "last kiss" on The Ed Sullivan Show before going into the Army. The lucky girl chosen randomly from Conrad's fan club is fifteen-year-old Kim MacAfee from Sweet Apple, Ohio. All the teenagers in Sweet Apple are catching up on the latest gossip about Kim MacAfee and Hugo Peabody going steady ("The Telephone Hour"). Kim, excited to have a boyfriend, reflects on how happy she is with her maturity ("How Lovely to Be a Woman"). She quits the Conrad Birdie fan club over the phone because of the new milestone happening in her life, and as she tells the news, her best friend Ursula is shocked. Meanwhile, Conrad, Albert and Rose set off to Sweet Apple to prepare for the event. Before they depart by train from New York City, local teenage girls are ecstatic to meet Conrad, although one young girl is sad because she thinks that by the time Conrad gets out of the army, she'll be too old for him. Albert advises her to be optimistic ("Put on a Happy Face"). Soon, reporters arrive with questions for Conrad, but Rosie, Albert, and the girls answer for him, pushing away tabloids ("Normal, American Boy").[4] Conrad receives a hero's welcome in Sweet Apple, and Hugo worries that Kim likes Conrad more than she likes him, but Kim assures Hugo that he's the only one she loves ("One Boy"). Conrad shocks the town's parents and drives the teenage girls crazy with his performance of "Honestly Sincere", which makes the girls all faint. Conrad becomes a guest in the MacAfee house and irritates Kim's father, Harry MacAfee, by being a rude and selfish guest. Mr. MacAfee does not want Kim to kiss Conrad until Albert tells him their whole family will be on The Ed Sullivan Show. Mr. and Mrs. MacAfee, Kim, and her younger brother Randolph sing Sullivan's praises ("Hymn For a Sunday Evening- Ed Sullivan"[5]). Hugo sees that Kim is attracted to Conrad and becomes very jealous. Albert's overbearing, interfering mother, Mae Peterson, comes to break up her son's relationship with Rosie. She introduces Albert to Gloria Rasputin, a curvy blonde she met on the bus who could replace Rosie as his secretary. Gloria hopes that if she helps Albert with papers, he can get Gloria into show business, as she is a tap dancer. Mae sings "Swanee River" as Gloria tap dances (usually depicted as her making a fool of herself) and ends doing a split. Unfortunately, she needs a little help getting up from her stance. Albert gives her a job to type up some revenues and Rosie is furious but hides it from Albert. Rosie, jealous and angry, dreams of violent ways to murder Albert ("One Hundred Ways Ballet"). Rosie and Hugo plot to ruin the broadcast. Conrad sings on The Ed Sullivan Show ("One Last Kiss") and as he leans in to kiss Kim, Hugo runs onstage and punches him in the face. On live television, Conrad faints, Rosie breaks up with Albert, and Albert, trying to cover for the mishaps of the evening, leads a chorus of "Normal American Boy". Act twohttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bye_Bye_Birdie&action=edit&section=4 edit Despite plans to refilm the broadcast, Rosie and Kim resolve to leave Albert and Hugo, lamenting on how stupid they were to fall in love with them ("What Did I Ever See in Him"). Rosie leaves the MacAfee house and Kim plans to go with her, until her father doesn't let her. Kim sneaks out of the house and joins the Sweet Apple teens. Conrad decides he wants to go out and have a good time on his last night as a civilian and encourages the teens to party ("A Lot of Livin' to Do"). Conrad, Kim, and all the teenagers except Hugo head for the Ice House to party without adult supervision. The Ice House is where people go when they want to be alone. Hugo goes to Maude's Roadside Retreat, hoping to get drunk, but proprietor Charles F. Maude can tell that he's under age and refuses to serve him. When Mr. MacAfee finds out Kim has run away, he and Mrs. MacAfee lament how disobedient kids are today ("Kids"). Rosie ends up at Maude's Roadside Retreat and starts hitting on other men, but Albert calls her on the telephone and begs her to return to him ("Baby Talk to Me"). Rosie, hoping to forget Albert, interrupts a Shrinersmeeting being held in Maude's private dining room. She flirts with all the Shriners, and they begin a wild dance. Hugo and Albert rescue Rosie from the crazed Shriners, and Albert finally stands up to his mother, telling her to go home. Mae becomes so upset that she leaves, but not before heavily dramatizing the sacrifices she made for him. Hugo tells the MacAfees and the other parents that the teenagers have gone to the Ice House, and they all declare that they don't know what's wrong with their kids ("Kids Reprise"). Randolph joins in, stating that his older sister and the other teens are "so ridiculous and so immature". The adults and the police arrive at the Ice House and arrest Conrad, although he doesn't appear to have done anything illegal or immoral. Kim claims that she was intimidated by Conrad, and gladly returns to Hugo. After a reconciliation with Albert, Rosie tells Albert's mother, Mae, that she will marry Albert despite Mae's racist objections, and to irritate her, declares she's Spanish ("Spanish Rose") with deliberate comic exaggeration. Albert bails Conrad out of jail and arranges for him to sneak out of town dressed as a middle-aged woman—presumably so he can report for Army induction as scheduled. Albert also gets his mother to leave Sweet Apple bound for home on the same train, getting Conrad and his mother out of his life for good. Albert tells Rosie that they're not going back to New York; they're going to Pumpkin Falls, Iowa. The small town is in need of an English teacher, and they prefer the applicant to be married. Albert professes that everything is rosy with Rosie ("Rosie") and they go off together happily and engaged as Rosie had always dreamed. ye Bye Birdie was first adapted for film in 1963. It starred Dick Van Dyke reprising his stage role as a slightly rewritten Albert Peterson, Maureen Stapleton as Mama Mae Peterson, Janet Leigh as Rosie, Paul Lynde reprising his stage role as Mr. MacAfee, Bobby Rydell as Hugo Peabody, and Ann-Margret as Kim MacAfee. Jesse Pearson played Conrad Birdie.[26] Ed Sullivan makes a guest appearance as himself. The film is credited with making Ann-Margret a superstar during the mid-1960s, leading to her appearing with the real Elvis Presley in Viva Las Vegas (1964). The film ranked number 38 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.[27] Several significant changes were made in the plot and character relationships in the film version. Albert is not Birdie's agent but a talented research chemist who is struggling as a songwriter only to please his overbearing mother. He contributed to Birdie's initial success, and therefore Birdie "owes" him a favor. The film version also includes an additional character, a suave English teacher who flirts with Rosie. She plays up to him in several scenes after Albert has made her angry by caving in to his mother. The positioning and context of several songs were changed as well. "An English Teacher," "Normal American Boy," "One Hundred Ways," "What Did I Ever See In Him?," "Baby Talk To Me" and "Spanish Rose" were omitted from the film. "Kids" was performed in the MacAfee kitchen by Mr. MacAfee, Mama Mae Peterson, Albert and Randolph. "Put On A Happy Face" is performed by Albert and Rosie in the MacAfees' back yard; "A Lot of Livin' To Do" was performed by Conrad, Kim and Hugo at a teen dance; and "Rosie" is sung at the end of show by Albert, Rosie, Hugo and Kim. Kim also opens and closes the film version singing the title song, "Bye Bye, Birdie", a song written for the film. The film version ends on a brighter and lighter note than the stage musical. When Hugo punches Conrad, knocking him out with a single punch "live" on The Ed Sullivan Show, he wins Kim's heart, and the young couple is reunited. Albert's mother shows up after the broadcast with Charles F. Maude (the bartender), informs Albert and Rosie that she has married him, and gives Albert and Rosie her blessing for their long-postponed wedding. Van Dyke was unhappy with the adaptation because the focus was shifted to Ann-Margret's character. He has stated that Birdie was "a romp'" on Broadway, but they "Hollywood-ized" the movie. "They made it a vehicle for Ann-Margret."[28] Paul Lynde, who played Mr. MacAfee on stage and in the film, later quipped "They should have retitled it 'Hello, Ann-Margret!' They cut several of my and the other actors' best scenes and shot new ones for her so she could do her teenage-sex-bombshell act." [29] Susan Watson, who created the role of Kim in the stage version, later said, "Anyone who likes the film didn't see the show The original production of Bye Bye Birdie opened to mostly positive reviews, with several critics marveling at the unexpected success of a musical crafted by an inexperienced production team. John Champman of the New York Daily News called it "the funniest, most captivating, and most expert musical comedy one could hope to see ... the show is pure, plain musical comedy, with jokes, dancing, oddball costumes ... exceptionally catching orchestrations ... and a completely enthusiastic cast." He noted that, "one of the best things about it is that practically nobody is connected to it. Who ever heard of Edward Padula ... Charles Strouse and Lee Adams ... Gower Champion?"[31] Frank Aston of the New York World-Telegram & Sun declared Bye Bye Birdie "the peak of the season" and especially liked Chita Rivera as Rosie: "Chita Rivera ... is triumphant as dancer, comic, and warbler."[31] In the New York Daily Mirror, Robert Coleman wrote that "Edward Padula put over a sleeper in the Broadway sweepstakes, and it's going to pay off in big figures ... Chita Rivera explodes like a bomb over West 45th Street. Michael Stewart has penned a sassy and fresh book, while Lee Adams and Charles Strouse have matched it with tongue-in-cheek lyrics and music."[31] New York Herald Tribune critic Walter Kerr praised Gower Champion's direction but criticized the libretto and score, stating that "Mr. Champion has been very much responsible for the gayety (sic), the winsomeness, and the exuberant zing of the occasion ... he has not always been given the very best to work with ... every once in a while, Michael Stewart's book starts to break down and cry ... Lee Adams's lyrics lean rather heavily on the new "talk-out-the-plot" technique, and Charles Strouse's tunes, though jaunty, are whisper-thin."[31] Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times conceded that "the audience was beside itself with pleasure" but dryly stated that "this department was able to contain itself. Bye Bye Birdie is neither fish, fowl, nor good musical comedy. It needs work